My first trip report: A visit to Cars Land

[gsrjedi]

This is my first time writing a trip report. Every July I go to San Diego for San Diego Comic-Con. That show has gotten so huge that this year I was only able to get tickets for Thursday & Friday. I convinced my mom that we should leave Friday night and go to Disneyland on Saturday to check out the DCA expansion. This trip took place between 7/11-7/15. I originally posted this on my blog. I'll post links to the SDCC portion of the trip, but I'll keep my posts here strictly Disney.​

​

Now let me introduce you to our cast:​

Me – Michael, your lowly scribe. Blerd, blaxican, Disney fan, man about town – there are so many ways one could describe me but my favorite is humble.
Mom – pretty self-explanatory this one. She plans to attend the convention only one of the days in her continuing quest to once a year get info on Monster High dolls. She’s become quite the Disney fan recently.
Cuz – like OMG this is tots my 14 year old cousin who attended SDCC last year and wanted to go again, plus like Disney & stuff. I believe her main mission on this trip was to run down the battery of her cellphone as often as possible. (Fact: 90% of you just read that first sentence in the voice of a teenage girl) #madeupinternetstatistics

Day 1 Wednesday - The Calm Before the Storm
Day 2 Thursday - The Wandering
Day 3 Friday - The Line That Wouldn't End
So begins the Disney portion of our trip

Me and my loyal companions stopped at Pei Wei for lunch before leaving San Diego. They apparently forgot my food with the others, but we got free lettuce wraps out of it, so it all balanced out. We hit a little traffic driving into Anaheim, but the drive was otherwise fine. We got to Anaheim around 3 and headed to The Disneyland Hotel for our first stay there. Mom fell in love with the place when we visited in February, and since it wasn’t much more than our previous hotel in San Diego had been, it didn’t add too much to stay there and go to Disneyland for a day instead of sticking around San Diego being taunted by the show I couldn’t go to. At least that was the argument I presented her with when I was trying to persuade her we should go to Disneyland and see the Disney California Adventure expansion. We got a room in the Adventure Tower and it was great. Plenty of space and nice little Mickey adornments around the room. I think Mom fell even more in love with the place.​

– couple from the room​

- Sorceror’s hat at the hotel​

- part of the Lego store refurbishment​

Mom & me are planning a trip to visit Walt Disney World for the first time in 20+ years in December. After thinking about the cost of those tickets and how much we would be spending this weekend we decided to upgrade our one-day park hoppers to Premiere Annual Passports so we can visit any of the six American Disney parks as many times as we wanted for the next year.​

- I still grab a map​

I felt it was only right to make sure the passes worked properly, but since cuz only had a one-day her & Mom went back to the hotel to check out the pool’s Monorail slides. The look on cuz’s face when I said I’m going to Disneyland right now was pretty funny.​

- Disneyland Hotel Monorail slide pool​

Free of the other two I entered The Happiest Place on Earth with no plans, just excited to be there. I went to the right under the train and remembered there was something neat at the Disney Gallery so I stopped in there. The neat thing was an exhibit about art of the Disney castles with the centerpiece being an amazing model of Sleeping Beauty’s castle at Disneyland Paris. After checking out the castle artwork I started towards City Hall and came across the end of the Flag Retreat Ceremony just as the Dapper Dan’s were singing the National Anthem. Good way to get my patriotic pride up right before the Olympics. USA! USA! USA! I went in City Hall and picked up a birthday button since my birthday is coming up soon. I hadn’t left the room planning on actually visiting the parks so while I had my camera and an extra lens in my pocket I didn’t have anything else and it was at this time that I noticed the memory card in my camera only had 10 photos left. I guess I was just going to have to enjoy the parks and not worry about taking pictures.​

- model of Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Paris​

After happily letting the Cast Member know I wouldn’t be needing a hand stamp I headed across the esplanade to say hello to the new Disney California Adventure. Buena Vista Street is beautifully done, such an improvement over the old Sunshine Plaza. I love the look of all the new buildings. I don’t know where I expected Cars Land to be, but it seemed much closer than I thought.​

- new entrance to DCA​

- Mortimer’s Market​

- Carthay Circle Restaurant​

I love cars, the first Cars movie, and would love to take a trip down Route 66 someday. So I might be a bit biased in saying that Cars Land is exceptional. It’s straight out of the movie. Unfortunately Radiator Springs Racers was down for the night so I wouldn’t get a chance to try it out tonight. I wasn’t too concerned with riding a bunch of rides though I just wanted to soak it all up. I stopped by the Cozy Cone to get a snack and a drink.​

- entrance to Cars Land​

- first view of Radiator Springs​

I had heard good things about Red’ Apple Freeze at Cone #4 and luckily that cone seems to never have a line, so I ordered one of those and some pretzel bites with cheese sauce. Red’s Apple Freeze is a frozen concoction consisting of apple juice and marshmallow syrup all topped with a passion fruit-mango foam. A weird combination but one I liked. The foam was tart in contrast to the drinks sweetness. The pretzel bites were good, but standard. As I was walking around eating one of the new street shows was starting up. DJ’s Dance Groove had just started so I watched that for a bit before finishing my food on a bench. Luigi’s Flying Tires had a 50 minute wait, but I figured I’d give it a shot anyways. The wait was pretty accurate, but I didn’t mind at first since I loved looking at all the little details in the interior part of the queue. I was noticing all the people on the ride were just trying to grab the beach balls and not really make their tires move, I decided I’d forget about the beach balls and just try to fly around. I think I made the right decision, once you figure the tires out I had good fun flying from side to side and crashing into the groups of people who weren’t moving.​

- DJ’s Dance Groove​

- Lightning McQueen going by for his meet and greet​

​

My phone was about to die so I decided I’d start to make my back to the room in case Mom & cuz wanted to do something for dinner. As I was walking out though “It’s Tough To Be A Bug” was about to start with no wait so I grabbed a seat. Being one of the many things I’ve never experienced at DCA I figured I’d check it out. I enjoyed my time as a bug. I came out of A Bug’s Land near the new Red Car Trolley station just as the trolley was getting ready to leave and they had one spot open. Guess who took that spot? We were about to take off when one of the other new street shows pulled out in front of us, so we let them get a head start on us. While not the quickest way to get around, it’s kind of neat to see the old-fashioned ads for the new stores on Buena Vista Street. I’d recommend checking out the stop near the Tower of Terror since every time I looked at the stop near the park entrance it seemed to have a line. I said goodbye for the night and got back to the room. Mom & cuz were already back from the pool and we were all hungry. It was decided that I would drive to Taco Bell to acquire our dinner for the evening. After dinner we were watching TV in the room when we discovered this surprise while trying to turn on the light.​

- remember the headboard from earlier, it does this​

We all hit the hay early since we were planning on being up early to take advantage of Extra Magic Hours for hotel guests.​

 

[Californian Elitist]

I'll be reading your report! Comic Con is a freaking beast. I was trying to go this year but I couldn't. I want to stay at the Del so badly but geez, is it expensive. Looking forward to the rest.

 

[gsrjedi]

Cuz is at that age where she thinks she’s grown-folk, yet still wanted a wake-up call from Mickey on Saturday morning. Who am I kidding? I totally wanted a Mickey wake-up call for myself. Cuz woke up for Mickey at 5 am and promptly tried to go back to sleep. That wasn’t going to happen though since we had to get up and get ready for park opening at 7 for hotel guests.​

Our Fellowship of the Mouse got to the monorail entrance at 7 and took the first ride in. Me and cuz rode Matterhorn while Mom joined Tink & Peter Pan on a flight to Neverland. The new Matterhorn cars are pretty uncomfortable. I just kept banging my knees against the back of the seat in front of me. After getting the band back together, we traveled across the esplanade to deal with the Cars Land morning madness.​

- inside of Manny the monorail​

- mustn’t be late​

​

- Partners​

Mom & cuz headed for the rope to wait with the crowd of people while I took our tickets and got in the fastpass line, it was about 7:50. A cast member came and told us that where we were standing we would have over an hour wait. I opted to get out of line and go find Mom & cuz in the scrum. At 8 o’clock, this sea of humanity was led to Cars Land and specifically Radiator Springs Racers. The sign said it was already a 100 minute wait by the time we got there. Disaster nearly struck right as we were entering the queue. An announcement was made that RSR would be down briefly. Nobody got out of line though and after about 15 minutes the ride was back up & running. And a cheer went up through the crowd! Radiator Springs is all about the idea of water to fill up a car’s radiator. The RSR queue reflects this and one of the buildings has a bunch of old radiator caps screwed on the wall for decoration. One of the walls has prices for radiator caps for car manufacturers from the pre-interstate era of motoring. I loved all the little car details in the line. As we neared the front of the line, we were directly behind the next people in line, but still had to snake around one more time. The next couple of groups who were getting on, were apparently groups of 4 or more because they asked us how many people were in our party and like the number of circles used to make a Mickey symbol, 3 was the correct answer. They let us through and we hopped in our open-top vehicles. Radiator Springs Racers is a fantastic ride. It starts off with a nice calm build up outside as you pass the bridge and waterfall. Then you go inside and it becomes a classic Disney dark ride that recounts the first movie. You are either led to Luigi’s for some new tires or Ramone’s for a paint job, we got the tires, before making your way to the starting line. A couple seconds later another car pulled up beside us, and after a brief countdown we were off on a high-speed race against our competitors. We lost, but I think the race adds such a great element to the ride.​

- Cars Land morning rush​

- Radiator Springs Racers queue​

- Radiator Springs Racers​

All three of us wanted to hop right back in line, but didn’t want to wait 150 minutes. We decided we’d go flying on some tires even though Luigi’s had a 1 hour wait. The queue for Luigi’s features old style race posters for races like Le Mans and Monza, but with the cars done in the Cars movie style. There’s also a section with big glass cases that have race memorabilia and “signed” photos to Luigi & Guido from the other racers in the Cars movies. Once again, I absolutely loved all the details in there. I seriously want some of those old race style Ferrari posters. I told Mom & cuz to try and disregard the beach balls and just have fun flying around. They rode together while I was alone again. Luigi’s is like a big air hockey table. As you lean forward slightly the front of the vehicle dips down slightly and with the back of the vehicle in the air, the air being pushed up from the ground pushes you forward. It can be tricky to get the hang of at first, and after my 2nd ride I definitely felt much more experienced. If you have multiple people in your vehicle and they lean opposite directions, you’re not going anywhere. If you lean too far you’ll bottom out, and you’re not going anywhere. It seems that most people go for the beach balls. I’m guessing it’s so they can throw them at the people they came with. All in good fun of course. I notice this leads to most of the tires being on one side or the other of the ride area, with the middle mostly free. I didn’t care about the beach balls and had fun just trying to control the tire and go from end to end crashing into people who were more preoccupied with the balls. Cuz said she tried to forget about the beach balls and just fly, but that Mom couldn’t resist the allure of plastic filled with air.​

​

- Luigi’s Flying Tires queue​

We all enjoyed our time as tire pilots. After 2 hours of waiting, Mom was ready to sit down and take a break. We left her at Flo’s and went to ride Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree. I like the Cars movies, but I’m not a big fan of Mater, and this was my least anticipated of the three new rides. The queue features some real life versions of props taken from the Mater’s Tall Tales shorts. Not yet winning me over. Watching the ride as you wait, it just didn’t look too exciting. Still not winning me over. Me and cuz rode together and after I squished her against the side of the car for the first time, I was won over. Mater’s was really a surprising amount of fun. You ride in a trailer behind these “baby tractors” as they go around on giant discs on the ground. As you go around and as you switch from disc to disc, the trailer swings wildly back and forth and it really whips you around with some force. Watching the ride before doesn’t adequately prepare you for the force with which it whips you. Cuz liked it too despite the injuries she acquired from me squishing her against the side of the car as we flung around.​

- Mater’s Grizzly Jamboree​

Meanwhile Mom had made her way over to the Cozy Cone for some popcorn and a Doc’s Wild Grape Tonic. It’s Sprite with wild grape syrup and a wild berry foam. She loved it. I suggest you reread that sentence again to fully comprehend her affection for this drink. I had a drink and it tastes like grape soda, but then the lemon-lime of the Sprite comes in at the end. I enjoyed it, but nowhere near the level to which she did. It was decided that Little Mermaid would be the next ride since I enjoy it, cuz hadn’t ridden it, and Mom didn’t remember that she liked it. As we made our way there, cuz wanted to ride California Screamin’. She was going to have to go it alone since me and mom don’t ride it. The wait said it was only 25 minutes, so we figured we’d take another break. While waiting, I went to see how long the wait for Toy Story Mania was, but at 45 minutes I didn’t want to leave them waiting for me. Turns out I could’ve rode it, since cuz wasn’t back for about 45 minutes anyways. It’s okay because I rode another ride anyways, King Triton’s Carousel. After watching it go round and round for 30 minutes I just couldn’t resist to get on it with all the little kids.​

- Paradise Pier​

- ready for take off​

​

 

[gsrjedi]

Cuz eventually came back and we once again headed to take a trip under the sea. I wish more people rode this. I think it’s such a good ride and it seems to never have a wait. Oh well, I guess that just means more Ariel for me. Our school of fishes came back up for air and Mom remembered that she liked that ride. We were hungry and it was decided that we would see if Chef Oscar was around and eat at Carnation Cafe.​

- Ariel’s Undersea Adventure​

- I hear the hotel in the background has horrible service​

- Mickey greeting some people we don’t know​

​

Chef Oscar wasn’t there, but lunch was good anyways. Mom had the chicken-fried chicken (none of us really read that and were all surprised at what came out since we thought it was regular fried chicken), cuz ordered the cheeseburger, while I oped for the turkey sandwich and the baked potato soup. Potato soups are my kryptonite. I love sweets, but I can pass up cake & ice cream. I’ve yet been able to resist a potato soup. The soup was fantastic, very thick with big chunks of potatoes. The turkey sandwich was good, but I’d order more sauce next time. The others said their food was delicious. I also got a birthday sundae since I was still wearing my birthday button. By now it was about 2 and Mom had just about enough. She went back to the room to rest while me and cuz continued our journey. It was hot out so we decided that getting wet on Splash Mountain was a good idea. Everybody else seemed to have this idea though as evidenced by the 75 minute wait. We decided to get fastpasses instead. The Haunted Mansion had a wait of about 10 minutes so we hopped in line. I’m glad cuz didn’t become ghost number 1,000 since her parents are quite fond of her and that would’ve been hard to explain. As we were passing New Orleans Square I remembered that I wanted to find Club 33. I’ve never looked for it, and couldn’t really imagine where it was at based on the pictures I’d seen. I found it pretty easily and proceeded to take the same pictures that everybody else does so that I could continue the tradition of not giving any clues as to it’s actual whereabouts. Here’s where it is anyways. It’s between the gift shop that sells Nightmare Before Christmas merchandise and the Blue Bayou Restaurant. Turn left as you exit Pirates of the Caribbean and you’ll spot it right next to the Blue Bayou. After being reminded that we were poor and couldn’t visit the exclusive club, Big Thunder Mountain was calling us, and with a 25 minute wait we answered that call. When we were finally safe from the runaway mine car I saw the Mark Twain Riverboat loading. We got on board to experience another new attraction for both of us. It was a nice cruise around the Rivers of America and it never ceases to amaze me how many small details Disney puts into areas like this that so many people will never see. Such as the fish that jump back and forth next to the boy fishing on a log. We stepped back into the present day and made our way to the future. Space Mountain was our next stop. Right as we entered the indoor part of the queue, the ride broke down. It was only down for about 15 minutes though and soon we were blasted off into the darkness of space. It was now just before 5 and I wanted to see the Voices of Liberty before watching Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln and then head back to the room. I failed to inform cuz of my plans though and she didn’t want to see any shows, just do more rides. I was disappointed because a week before we left she had mentioned wanting to see Great Moments with Mr. Lincoln, which I wanted to as well, and now she claims to have never made such a statement. I’ll be back before the Voices of Liberty leave Disneyland so we skipped it and went back to the room so I could get my tripod and rest a little.​

​

- the elusive Club 33​

- views from the Rivers of America​

Mom was asleep when we got back to the room, so me and cuz just relaxed and sat for a spell. I knew we were going to be out late and we’d be tired when we came back, but I wanted to visit Trader Sam’s sometime during this trip. Once the girls had gotten up and started to get ready I headed down for a quick drink. I had a Piranha Pool, imagine a blue raspberry icee but with liquor. We went back to DCA to buy some chocolate we had seen earlier and to see how long the RSR line was. Cuz thought I was crazy because I was excited by the colors the setting sun was casting on Buena Vista Street. I got a mint brownie ear hat and mom got a chocolate dipped marshmallow thing. Cuz wanted a specialty candy apple but didn’t want to pay for one.​

- Oswald’s​

- our chocolates with the Carthay Circle Restaurant as the backdrop​

- Carthay Circle Restaurant​

​

She wanted to ride Tower of Terror, alone again since me and Mom stay away from haunted places that don’t have grim grinning ghosts in them. On our way we stopped in the Animation Academy so I could show cuz the Toy Story zoetrope. I think this is pretty fantastic and I could see it being missed by so many people who don’t go in that building. Cuz rode ToT and while walking around I noticed MuppetVision 3D was about to start. Being on my list of things I’ve never seen I walked in and took a seat. I’m glad I experienced it, but I didn’t like it. It could be because I grew up with the Muppet Babies and not the regular Muppets, so the non baby versions are just weird to me. The Mad T Party was going on, so I danced my way back to where mom and cuz were waiting.​

- Toy Story zoetrope​

- it seems this should just be outside of Disneyland​

​

 

[gsrjedi]

We walked over to Cars Land to find that RSR still had a 2+ hour wait so we decided to go to Flo’s for dinner. Cuz didn’t want any of that grown-up food and wanted some pretzel bites from the Cozy Cone instead. Mom waited at Flo’s and sent me to watch cuz and to get her another Doc’s Wild Grape Tonic. We got back just as Mom was finished in line. Mom had the N.Y. Strip Loin with some sort of sauce with mashed potatoes and corn medley, I had the Citrus Turkey with sauce with mashed potatoes and pasta salad. I preferred her meat to mine, our other two side dishes were good but nothing special, we both really liked the mashed potatoes. After eating the three of us went on Mater’s. This time me and mom rode together while cuz floundered around on her own. By now it was 9:30, Mom’s bedtime and she was ready to go back to the room. Me and cuz stayed to get some rides in. Soaring was a 15 minute wait so we took to the skies of California. I wanted to stay and take some photos of an empty Cars Land after the park closed, but I also wanted to make sure I rode Star Tours over at DisneyLand. I figured with the long waits of Luigi’s and RSR, Cars Land really wouldn’t be empty for a while and just decided to head over to DisneyLand to get some more rides in for cuz since it’ll probably be a while before she gets back.​

- Cars Land at night​

- dinner at Flo’s​

- Buena Vista Street at night​

Back in Walt’s park, Fantasmic was getting ready to start so crowds were lined up along the Rivers of America. Splash was a walk on and the right side of my pants got soaked, luckily my backpack with my camera equipment was on the left side of the boat. Pirates was so empty, there were 4 people in our boat including us. After narrowly avoiding a bout of scurvy, we discovered that Fantasmic had just ended and the crowds were getting thick. Indiana Jones had a 35 minute wait and Cuz wanted to look into the Forbidden Eye. Despite mine and Indy’s warnings that it wasn’t a good idea. We escaped with our lives and I made my way to Star Tours. There was a 15 minute wait and since it was 11:50, this would be the last ride of the day. We grabbed our flight glasses and boarded our Starspeeder 1000. After escaping the Stormtroopers, we headed to Hoth to fight some AT-ATs, then Admiral Ackbar gave us coordinates to Coruscant to safely deliver the rebel spy. The new Star Tours is fantastic and cuz liked it too. Then it was Sunday, and that’s a different day.​

 

[gsrjedi]

Sunday - The Long Road Home​

Sunday began as Saturday ended. Me and cuz had just ridden Star Tours and since it was after midnight, the park was closed. I took out my tripod and set about taking some pictures. I mainly stayed near the castle and Fantasyland for the evening. I hear horror stories of security hassling other photographers using their tripods at night, so I was slightly worried someone was going to make me stop. Luckily, any cast members I saw just walked by and wished me a happy birthday. Cuz seemed to be bored as we moved from spot to spot. After 45 minutes or so I decided to call it a night. We headed back to the room and fell asleep around 1:30.
- tried to recreate a shot I took on my last trip that turned out slightly blurry last time
- Snow White’s Grotto
- Sleeping Beauty Castle sideview
- scenes from Fantasyland
- shots from around the Partners statue - I zoomed out while taking this photo to create the effect
- Main Street USA
- across the esplanade
I ended up falling asleep with my glasses on and woke up to find Mom standing over me trying to take them off. I was startled awake at 7 by this turn of events and discovered that Mom was dressed and getting ready to head to the parks to use the early entry to get some more rides in Fantasyland. The prospect of flying to Neverland, plus a nearly empty park had me up and out the door with her. We left cuz sleeping since she didn’t have a ticket and probably wouldn’t have gotten up anyways. Once again we took the monorail in and headed off to visit Peter with a 5 minute wait. After de-boarding our flying pirate ships, Snow White, Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride, and the Adventures of Alice in Wonderland were all walk ons. After riding most of Fantasyland, I took some photos of the castle while Mom used the bathroom.
- castle in the morning
We headed over to Tomorrowland where I once again boarded a Starspeeder 1000 for a trip to far off places. Mom doesn’t ride Star Tours, so she waited and looked around the gift shop until I finished. We always like to get a ride on Buzz when we’re there, so we walked right on. I got the high score of course. By now it was 8 and the park was officially opened.

Mom wanted to head back to the room to pack and get ready to check out. I wanted to see if the Lily Belle was running and try and get a quick ride in. As I neared the station I noticed Chip or Dale standing alone. His brother was nearby, but had a crowd so I had the lonely chipmunk’s handler take a photo of us together. The Lily Belle was running, but not until later in the day when we’d be gone. One of these times I’ll ride in that car. As I left the Main Street station, the various Main Street Vehicles were loading up and I figured I’d hop on one. I chose the horse-drawn carriage and had a lovely, peaceful ride up Main Street.
- Chip or Dale, I don’t know which one
- Main Street USA​

 

[gsrjedi]

My carriage ride ended back in front of the castle and I didn’t have any other plans so I just started walking out. As I passed the entrance to Adventureland I decided to see if I could get a Dole Whip this early in the day. Apparently ice cream is not acceptable at 8 in the morning so I couldn’t get one. Since I was in the area I figured I’d check on the Jungle Cruise and see if they had any excursions leaving soon. They did! I haven’t ridden this in years and I don’t know why. The skipper was great and he even made a Star Wars reference. When he fired his gun to scare the hippos he made a comment about hippos scaring easily but that they’d soon be back and in greater numbers. Loved it. Upon returning from my cruise I climbed Tarzan’s Treehouse to see what kind of views it offered. I wonder if they close that off during Fantasmic & the Fireworks, could be neat to watch from up there. I had bought a toy version of the RSR ride vehicle yesterday in DCA, Mom thought it was cute and wanted one of her own. I don’t think they had them in any of the Disneyland stores, so I figured I’d surprise her and go buy one for her before we left. I was feeling a bit peckish as I was passing the Jolly Holiday Bakery and popped in to get a pastry to tide me over. As soon as I saw it, I knew what my order would be. A humongous cinnamon roll dripping with frosting. You can’t have ice cream at 8, but a bucket of frosting is acceptable. I sat down next to Main Street and just took it all in. I felt a little guilty to be eating this breakfast alone while Mom and cuz were waiting for me to return so I didn’t mention that I ate anything. I only planned to make it known to them if they read this or looked at the pictures. After we returned home Mom confessed that she had stopped and got something in Tomorrowland on her way out and didn’t call me to join her. Guess we both wanted to eat alone.​

- Jungle Cruise​

- view from Tarzan’s​

- breakfast of champions​

After enjoying my secret breakfast I said goodbye to Disneyland for this time and hello again to DCA. I didn’t get a drink with my breakfast and I was going to stop at the Cozy Cone for another Red’s Apple Freeze, but decided on trying another new drink. I got Ramone’s Pear of Dice soda, sprite with desert pear and mojito syrups. Also good, but I preferred Red’s. I planned to surprise Mom with the car because when I bought mine I only saw blue cars. This morning in a different store they had other colors, so I had to call and make sure I got the right color. I finished my drink and bid farewell to the roaring 20′s of Buena Vista Street.​

- quick Buena Vista Street pano​

- the grizzly was calling​

Upon returning to the room I was slightly shocked to see that cuz had woken up. We packed up our stuff and called for a bellhop to store our luggage as we did some last minute shopping in Downtown Disney. The girls headed out while I waited for the bellhop. I took a couple more photos of the room before he arrived.​

- Disneyland Hotel room​

In Downtown Disney I tried to make the most of my passholder discount. I bought a few Vinylmations and Mom bought a gift for our neighbor for watching the house. Cuz bought a tank top she wanted as part of her back to school attire. We loaded our new purchases up with the rest of our luggage and headed up I-5 to visit Mom’s Nina in Los Angeles. We had lunch with her and some of her family at Shakey’s, another good place we don’t have here, before getting on the road to head home around 4:30. We listened to some more comedy albums on the way home and between Patrice O’Neal & Hannibal Burress I had to really focus to keep my eyes on the road. Good comedy may not be the best thing while driving. We dropped cuz off at her home and finally made it back to our home around midnight.​

It was a trip with a lot of firsts. First year I wasn’t completely thrilled with my SDCC experience. I’ll still be online in August trying to get tickets for next year though. First time staying at the Disneyland Hotel. Mom really loved it there. First time experiencing a lot of new attractions at Disneyland.​

I won’t presume to speak for the others, but I had a blast. Disney has something really good on their hands with Cars Land and all three of the new rides are winners in my book. I still struggle with the balance of a family trip and taking time to take photos the way I want to. I guess I’ll just have to take more trips to get some more experience.​

 

[Californian Elitist]

Great trip report, thanks for posting! Your Disneyland Hotel room is beautiful. Glad you guys had fun!

 

[worldfanatic]

Great Pics!!!! Great Report!!!!!

I just made my first visit to CarsLand yesterday and Radiator Springs Racers blew me away!!
In my humble opinion, Universal no longer has the best theme park attraction on the Planet.
Sorry Mr. Potter.

Truly Amazing effort by Disney!

 

[Maryssa*]

Love your report and pics! I haven't eaten anything in CarsLand yet and it sounds/looks really good!

Also jealous of your passport!

 

[FlaggNL]

It's an oldie But great to read and see the pics from California Thanks for sharing!